Media target Trump on pandemic

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Media target Trump on pandemic

As new virus cases hit record highs.

This is a rush transcript from "Media Buzz," June 28, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: This is "Media Buzz." I'm Howard Kurtz. New all-time highs for Coronavirus for five straight days, more than 42,000 cases yesterday alone, along with a surge in numerous states the media tightly focused on the pandemic on President Trump's role and comments he made about virus testing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When you do testing to that extent, you will find more people. You will find more cases. So I said to my people, slow the testing down, please. I don't kid. Our tests are the best in the world of them. By having more tests, we find more cases.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: With the press ramping up its coverage, the pundits are pointing fingers or minimizing the impact.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president and vice president continue to feed the American people lies about the state of this pandemic and their administration's failures to rise to the moment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We didn't have to have more than 120,000 Americans die with the virus still raging. We could have listened to the experts. When everyone was saying listen to the experts, downplaying it was, it was a hoax.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The way the media frames new cases now seems to indicate that we should all stay locked down and the president screwed up. And that's just not fair.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trump demonstrated that he's not going to be controlled by the COVID fear mongers. The media and his political opponents, they don't care about COVID infections. Give me a break, for if they did, they would have shut down the George Floyd protests.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: Joining us now to analyze the coverage, Mollie Hemingway, senior editor. At The Federalist and a Fox News Contributor, Griff Jenkins, a Fox News Correspondent here in Washington, and in New York, Jessica Tarlov, also a Fox News Contributor. Mollie, New York Times headlines yesterday, a White House in denial. The media trying to portray --

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, they've been clearly trying to do that for months now. In general, the media are not very good at explaining context or nuance. We learned that the CDC estimates that 10 times as many people have Coronavirus have tested positive. That's what it means when you test more people. More than 20 million Americans have it.

We need to know how many people are being hospitalized, how many people in which age group have this. One of the things about recent increase of cases predominantly in younger age groups which are much better suited to handle it. In this entire story we have seen that it's not just older people, older people in nursing home at risk.

Third and a half of all deaths related to this have been in nursing homes. 
We need to have much more focus on people who are vulnerable there and much less about people who are asymptomatic at younger ages.

KURTZ: Jessica, the good news is death rates are way down, but more than
125,000 Americans have died of the disease. Do you see the president of downplaying the pandemic even when these latest numbers reflecting the surge and the media impact?

JESSICA TARLOV, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: He absolutely is and I would argue that Mike Pence when he finally got back on television, essentially giving the president a victory lap. Even if it is people in my hijack are -- age are getting. I think the president held back and forth, I was kidding, I wasn't kidding. He really hung Kayleigh McEnany out to dry when she made a statement, the president was joking and then he comes out oh, I never kid.

Why are you joking about people lives? And, of course, the media is going to cover this when we are getting crazy stats out of Texas, Florida, Arizona, places reopened and are having to scale that back.

KURTZ: Griff, would you agree that the media for several weeks, especially during the protests, pretty much pulled back from this story and kind of sent a signal that it's kind of over as a huge national emergency?

GRIFF JENKINS, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: I would agree that they put the front and center the violence on the street, the civil unrest, catching our attention. And course, we've had no shortage of guests talking with local leaders who did not move to stop the social distancing that was being violated in the situations.

But you know, you raise a point, you know, we saw vice president canceling trip to Florida and Arizona because of the Coronavirus concerns. And really what's most important about this discussion I think is that the virus is the only apolitical player in all of this. And the data matters significantly. I interviewed yesterday a real smart expert who says, look, if you get hospitalized in Florida, you are 85 year's old, you have chance of dying --

(CROSSTALK)

KURTZ: Right. But of course, the press is growing tired of the story and repetitive and it's kind of depressing. Mollie, what do you think about Jessica's point about testing, because some public health experts say it's beyond increase testing, it's more positive rates when you do tests.

HEMINGWAY: Well, it's important that we change as new facts come on the ground. When this began, it was extremely scary and we were seeing certain results in testing rates. And now, we have a much lower case fatality rate. 
We have a much greater survival rate. We have learned so much more about how it affects people in different age groups.

And that's where I'm not seeing the media coverage change. They are still acting like we don't know anything about this. And we need to have the same level of fear. There's a certain amount of reasonable fear, 5, 10, 20 times as scary as it actually is, that's not helpful. We need to have better risk comparisons. There's risk with everything that we do no life.

The risk for people below a certain age group is very, very small. The risk of people in nursing homes, 1 in 6, just under one and 6 people in new jersey in nursing homes died. They are trying to make it sound general when it's a very focused problem and one that we are not paying enough attention to there. And we are acting like it's the same level of risk for people who are at school or what not when they actually are not spreaders of the same
-- in any way the same.

KURTZ: Jessica, let me get your response to that. President Trump's own mentions of COVID-19 declined by two-thirds from April to early June. And I think the media take a lot of cues from POTUS.

TARLOV: Yes, absolutely. He dominates on chosen media platform for politics. And so everyone will have to follow his lead there. We know why the president doesn't want to talk about it. He has a re-election campaign to run and he wants to be the law and order candidate. He doesn't want to have sorry 125,000 Americans died.

And I was out to lunch January and February when I should have been preparing about this. A lot about the op-ed that Joe Biden wrote on January saying that President Trump is the worst person to be in charge if we are going to have a health pandemic. Look at that. Biden was right. And look at that, Biden is up about 10 points right now.

The number one issue in the election for the last two cycles will be health care. It would be the number one issue again. So the president can go to border wall all that he wants. He can talk about how black lives matter is a terrorist organization, et cetera. But when people are dying whether they are 85 or whether it's 30, 35-year-olds that are getting sick and don't know the long-term implications. We've heard it can have lung -- longer- term capacity implications.

KURTZ: But again, the media's coverage I believe has been spotty at times. 
Griff, so happens that Mike Pence shared the first Coronavirus task force hearing in two months. It wasn't at the White House. It was at HHS. The president of the United States did not appear. Pence said we made progress. 
Dr. Fauci who report sidelined on TV urged caution.

Did the president all of this essentially canceling the daily show, the Coronavirus task force, kind of dampened the media's interest?

JENKINS: Possibly. And to the point, good one that you raise because maybe they should bring it back on a daily basis. Because again, as Jessica points out, I think accurately, where this virus is and how the country's handled 130 so days from now will depend who wins the White House. And it appeared even though the president at one point wanted to do entirely with the briefing.

There was a hunger and a consistent of hunger for the information, for the data, for the recommendations. And really now, in the absence of those briefings we are getting, you know, national debates over whether you should wear a mask or not. I think he would do himself a favor of bringing it back full force.

KURTZ: All right, we are tight on time. Mollie, why is the whole debate about whether people should wear a mask when they go to public or in crowded places? Why has it become so politicized? Is it in part because President Trump is not publicly embraced wearing a mask himself and hasn't embraced the recommendation? Lots governors, mayors are wearing, why do you think it's become politicized?

HEMINGWAY: Well, we might begin at the beginning where we were told that masks did nothing to prevent the spread of Coronavirus. We had these experts even in the Trump administration who are saying that they weren't necessary. Then they say they are. I think it's an issue of nuance. People are unable to understand that there might be times where you're wearing a mask and times that you aren't.

And on both extremes, you have people that you have to wear it at all times or not. In general, we just need much more accurate coverage of actual risks being outside, exercising, for instance, being more than six feet apart you don't need to wear a mask.

KURTZ: Right. And Jessica, quickly, the same question about the shutdowns and whether they were too quickly and to come back seems to become partisan issue for the media.

TARLOV: Yeah, absolutely. But there were big mistakes that people in my own party have made. There have articles in left-leaning publications said that if Cuomo had shut down New York a week earlier and taken the example that they did in San Francisco that we could have saved lives and certainly not have the nursing home scandal.

That's New York and New Jersey where it's been the worst and those are blue states. But to Mollie's point about the president, he has to lead by example. The surgeon general says wear a mask. The president should wear a mask.

KURTZ: All right. Meanwhile, you know, you may be watching this in a state where the Coronavirus is not surging. But Florida and Texas, they shut down the bars. It is a better situation in New York and D.C. where most of the media are based, which is why slowness to recognize where we are today. Let me get a break here. Frank Luntz joins us later on the program.

But when we come back, the president denouncing a New York Times piece on Russia allegedly encouraging the killing of American soldiers in Afghanistan, and Trump also re-tweeting a very controversial video.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KURTZ: The New York Times reports that President Trump was briefed on Russian military intelligence, offering bounties to militants linked to the Taliban to kill American soldiers and coalition forces in Afghanistan. 
There have been lots of denials from the president on Twitter this morning calling this just another phoney times hit job and demanded that the paper reveal its anonymous sources whose existence he doubts.

Griff Jenkins, another classic confrontation with the press over unnamed sources. And I should mention that sources have since confirmed the story to the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and CNN.

JENKINS: You know what troubling really, Howie, in all of this is that in the White House's denial and the president's tweet, denial is that he was specifically briefed about it. He doesn't deny outright that the bounties are -- were made. And I think really that's not going to create a problem for them. Because again, you will not walk all of this back.

If the intelligence community didn't brief the NSC in the White House, that's a problem. If the NSC was briefed and didn't tell the president as he says, he, vice president and chief of staff Meadows told, that's a problem too. But it's really an issue here that we will hear more about.

KURTZ: Right. Mollie Hemingway, The Times' story the National Security Council debated options on responding to Putin which suggests substance to the story. HEMINGWAY: Well, actually it's impossible to know because it's anonymous sources making claims. And I kind of question why people keep believing The New York Times when it claims anonymous intel sources about anything. This is the same paper, and in some cases, the very same reporters who publish the completely false and ridiculous Russia collusion hoax for many years.

Now, taking a step back, it's unlikely that you will get confirmation or denial from intelligence sources on this. You might remember a couple of months ago when the media claimed falsely that Kim Jong-Un was brain dead or had been killed and -- or had died and that was just not true. So not commenting doesn't necessarily mean anything.

In this case, you've got intelligence that you collect and then you have to analyze it. And you really have to come to a high degree of confirmation. 
You might remember how our intel community really believed there was weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

(CROSSTALK)

KURTZ: I remember vividly. Right, Jessica, as I said, other news organizations confirming the story. It doesn't mean it's true. But as Griff mentioned, if the president wasn't briefed, if he's telling the truth, why not, and that's a major issue.

TARLOV: Yeah, absolutely. That's a question that Liz Cheney asked this morning. At end of the day, we need to make sure that Vladimir Putin is not part of the G8. That's something that President Trump wanted. And I understand that Putin likes him better than Trudeau likes him or Boris Johnson likes him.

(CROSSTALK)

TARLOV: He can't be friends with autocrats and dictators who kill Americans. And to Mollie's comment about the Russia collusion hoax --

(CROSSTALK)

TARLOV: That's not what the Mueller report said, Mollie.

KURTZ: All right.

(CROSSTALK)

KURTZ: I want to get to this video that president re-tweeted this morning. 
It's of a clash of protesters at the villages in Florida, and it shows one guy in a golf cart with Trump campaign stickers shouting white power at some anti-Trump supporters. And the president wrote thank you to the great people of the villages. Radical left do nothing. Democrats will fall.

The president just at the beginning of the program deleted this tweet and Democrats endorsing racism.

HEMINGWAY: Well, this is a great example of media being factual without being accurate, not that it's tweet a tweet that he should've tweeted or put up. It appeared to show someone sarcastically responding to someone accusing him of holding this individual of holding these views by sarcastically saying he did. And this is something where -- this is a very big issue right now.

And we need the media to really do a good job rather than provoke racial conflict. You have a lot of people advocating hatred toward white people or you have responses like this. And it needs to be very careful. I think the media seem to want to provoke conflict rather than remind people that this is a wonderful country where people get along very well and where we are, you know, we are the best country in the world on some of these things.

KURTZ: Jessica, the president, as I said, deleting this tweet after the only black Republican Senator Tim Scott told CNN this was indefensible and should take it down. But as far as the media making a big deal out of it, it's the president who put this into play with the tweet. He kind of handed the press the story.

TARLOV: He's his worst enemy when it comes to social media. And we have seen that time and time again. He also doesn't seem to pay to a lot of attention to things he's tweeting. We've seen this the anti-Semitic tropes end up on his Twitter account, Don, Jr.'s as well, his son. And then what are you talking about? I didn't know that that was anti-Semitic.

The president needs to be the adult in the room. It's clear that he can't handle that. And someone needs to take his phone away. We have been discussing that for years at this point.

(CROSSTALK)

KURTZ: That's not happening.

(CROSSTALK)

TARLOV: -- white power is never a joke. And for Mollie to say this is a country where we all get along. I don't know what country Mollie is living when you look at what is happening on the streets after the murder of George Floyd.

(CROSSTALK)

KURTZ: Hold on. OK, hold on, please. Mollie, I got to give you 10 seconds to respond.

HEMINGWAY: I'm just saying that the accurate story about America is one where it is the most free and prosperous country for people of all races. 
And that's the story that needs to be told rather than hyping conflict of people. Yes, human nature is bad and there will be bad instances. But we don't want to neglect so overarching story of why so many people love this country and want to come here.

KURTZ: All right. I'm glad the president deleted the tweet. Mollie Hemingway, Jessica Tarlov, Griff Jenkins, thanks very much. Ahead, the press doesn't much like the attorney general's case of Mike Flynn case. But up next, did the media race to judgment in the case of NASCAR and the noose, which it turns out wasn't a hate crime after all?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KURTZ: There was a media explosion when NASCAR announced it was looking into a noose left in the team garage of Bubba Wallace, its only full-time black driver in that series. The league denouncing this is an awful act of racism. But an FBI probe found no hate crime, saying the rope had been in the garage since at least last fall and therefore couldn't have been targeted at Wallace.

Bubba Wallace defended his stance, insisting it was a noose in a very sympathetic interview with CNN's Don Lemon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think you handled this like a champ.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm pissed. I'm mad because people are trying to test my character and the person I am and my integrity. And they're not stealing that away from me, but they are just trying to test that.

KURTZ: Joining us now Charlie Gasparino, senior business correspondent for the Fox Business Network. And Charlie, NASCAR makes this dramatic announcement, a terrible racist act. We are looking into a noose left in the garage. Did the media rush to judgment here?

CHARLIE GASPARINO, FOX BUSINESS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, as a journalist, and you've been there too. You follow leads. And there's nothing there. I mean, let's be real clear. I don't think this was Bubba Wallace's fault. He was presented with the information by NASCAR in a very hysterical way, if you read press accounts by the head of NASCAR.

KURTZ: NASCAR.

(CROSSTALK)

GASPARINO: -- the media to me just seems like it is much more activist in this cover -- in coverage of protests and some of these issues that it should be. I mean, some of this, we should be the ones that sit back and say, OK. Let's see the facts before we rush to judgment.

(CROSSTALK)

KURTZ: I agree with you. I agree with you. Let me jump in. Let me jump in. 
I agree with you. But when NASCAR makes an announcement, I don't think that the media sort of pretended it didn't exist and wait days for confirmation. 
I talked about it in my podcast, because there was a NASCAR announcement. 
As far as Bubba Wallace, he -- I agree with you on that as well. But here is what he had to say to Fox's Jesse Watters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's get it straight. This wasn't a publicity stunt on my end. I don't need all the fame and all the media hype to, you know, create my brand and create my image. People that know me I'm 100 percent raw and real.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: So Bubba did the right thing. He went to the NASCAR authorities. But should he be more willing to say after the FBI finding, yeah, I recognize now that it wasn't aimed at me that it was perhaps some kind of hoax.

GASPARINO: Yeah. I mean, that was the oddest looking garage door rope. I'm not an expert at garage door ropes. That did look weird. That said, all reporters had to do was go to the scene when it happened and just start asking how many other ropes are there, when was this put up. I mean, by the way, if you have the date, all you need was the date of when that was put up.

You would know it wasn't directed at him. And again, I think it's the activist nature of reporters today. I mean, listen, we are in this --

(CROSSTALK)

KURTZ: Good point.

(CROSSTALK)

GASPARINO: People are in this business to take a stance a lot of times, not to report news. And that's a big problem for the media.

KURTZ: And on that note, Charlie Gasparino, thanks very much. Next on MEDIA BUZZ, Frank Luntz weighs in as pundits on the left and right say the Trump campaign is in trouble, are they rushing to judgment?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KURTZ: Got a bit of breaking news after President Trump tweeted that -- retweeted and then deleted a video from the villages in Florida in which one of his supporters was shouting white power, white power.

White House spokesperson Judd Deere saying that President Trump is a big fan of the villagers he did not hear the one statement made on the video, what he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters.

There's a new conventional wisdom about this election echoing across the airwaves.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: Not many people are saying it out loud on the right but the fact is that President Trump could well lose this election.

JOE SCARBOROUGH, HOST, MSNBC: This looks like a deliberate attempt to drive his campaign into the ground every day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: The president acknowledge he might come up short in talking to Sean Hannity about Joe Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: He can't put two sentences together. I don't want to be nice or un-nice, OK, but I mean, the man can't speak and he's going to be a president because some people don't love me maybe.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's like a child who can't believe this has happened to him. All his whining and self-pity, well, this pandemic didn't happen to him, it happened to all of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: Joining us now here in Washington Frank Luntz, the veteran pollster who has worked for many Republicans. And Frank, Donald Trump is probably getting the worst press of his presidency, some of it has to do with that New York Times poll showing him trailing Joe Biden by 14 points, trailing by double digits in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

Polls change. It's only June but are these gloom and doom assessments by the media on target?

FRANK LUNTZ, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST AND POLLSTER: The first thing is he got to (Technical difficulty) by laziness -- they went to (Inaudible), they all went to Philadelphia, they got into a cab or an Uber, drove half an hour and interviewed voters in the Philadelphia suburbs. That was not where Trump was going to do well. In fact, Hillary Clinton did extremely well.

Some did better 30 minutes farther away and so the press cannot use polling even though it's my profession, they cannot use it as substitute for actually talking to voters. And second, there are three questions that matter more than the ballot. First, are you better off now than you were four years ago, the famous Ronald Reagan question.

KURTZ: Yes.

LUNTZ: Second, is America in the right direction or wrong track. And third, job approval. It's not whether Trump and Biden, it's not the difference between them. It's the job approval for the president. The first question he's doing well, the second question he's doing badly and the trend on job approval is going down. So, we need a level of --

(CROSSTALK)

KURTZ: Let me jump in.

LUNTZ: Yes.

KURTZ: Let me jump in and ask you this, because this is not just the liberal media trashing Trump's reelection chances. Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial board writing the following. Mr. Trump heads for what could be a historic repudiation. As of now he has no second-term agenda. His default now is defensive self-congratulation. Do you think that is too harsh based on, you know, because that's coming from an editorial page that agrees with him on a lot of policies?

LUNTZ: I don't think it's (Technical difficulty) they're pointing there that the president's (Technical difficulty) he's talking down all the things he's done unproved that he's lived through his promises and that's a mistake, Howie.

Voters vote on the future not just the past and they vote on what you're going to do not just what you have done. And Donald Trump is not explaining what's going to happen in the months and years to follow. That's a total mistake that he is making and the Journal is basically calling him on it with four and a half months to fix the challenge.

KURTZ: Now Politico reports that Trump has told friends that he knows he's losing at least as of right now. There been numerous news stories saying Trump advisers are upset with the campaign he's running, that he's not more forward looking to use your phrase, that he is winning over, he is playing to his base with divisive rhetoric.

Are this fair criticism usually when people who are aligned with the candidate, in this case, the incumbent, start telling these to reporters off the record it means there's a lot of frustration?

LUNTZ: It means that they are basically saying (Technical difficulty) there's a reason why he's on the air every day dominating the news and yet his numbers are going down. The tone is off. It's not empathetic. The message is off, it's not enough about the future.

And the key in all of this, Howie, is that swing voters, the undecided and it's only 6 percent of the population. If you're not talking to them, you're not changing the electoral result and that is a challenge that Trump has right now. He's talking very effectively to his base. He's now talking to people he needs to win.

KURTZ: You mentioned Joe Biden going to Pennsylvania to give a speech this week about saving Obamacare and the COVID situation. By in large Biden is doing interviews from his Delaware home, he is not out there very much. Now some Democrats looking at the polls saying you know what, that's a pretty good strategy. Do you think it is better in media terms for Biden to kind of be mostly off the radar while the president dominates the news?

LUNTZ: Well, there's about (Inaudible) by the strategist Lee Atwater that when your opponent is in process of (Inaudible) themselves get out of the way. Just make it happen. So, it makes sense for now. But Biden cannot hide forever.

I've been watching and studying the election in 1968 because I think that is the most appropriate comparison to 2020, civil unrest, violence in the streets, candidates that did not necessarily please a lot of people in the electorate.

And the key in all of this knowing when to speak, knowing what to say and being so disciplined that you don't get off message. That does not describe the president right now.

KURTZ: Frank, I literally got half a minute. Do you think the media when it comes to pandemic, when it comes to race relations, and when it comes to the Trump presidency are playing a divisive role in this country?

LUNTZ: Absolutely. But I blame (Inaudible) much more and blame Twitter much more. And I use Twitter but I use Twitter to try to unite people, to tell the truth rather than try to pick sides.

One more thing, the press should show both sides of these protests, the riot side and the protest side. The public has the right to know those who are speaking up for change and the right to know who are committing violent acts. You need both of them. That's the responsibility of your profession.

KURTZ: All right. Frank Luntz, good to see you. Thanks very much for joining us.

LUNTZ: Thank you.

KURTZ: A little rough there as we do show remotely.

Coming up, many pundits not happy as an appeals court upholds the dropping of the criminal case against Mike Flynn. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KURTZ: There was enormous media criticism of Bill Barr when he moved to drop the charges against former national security adviser Mike Flynn, but his Justice Department won big victory when a federal appellate panel voted two to one to clear the way for the Flynn case to be closed.

And that put the media spotlight not just on Flynn but on the attorney general.

Joining us now to analyze the coverage in Seattle, Emily Compagno, host of Fox Nation's Crimes That Changed America, and Mara Liasson, NPR's national political reporter and a Fox News contributor.

So, Emily, I know many people believe that Flynn was railroaded that the FBI coerce his guilty plea and the FBI set a perjury trap for him, but the coverage has been lacer focus on Bill Barr and the extent to which he is helping the president have the case drop against his former aide.

EMILY COMPAGNO, FOX NEWS HOST: that's exactly right, Howie. And unfortunately, it's no surprise. There's always a caveat in the coverage that immediately shapes the tone that the reader or viewer receives. So, for example, one headline, just the headline said that as two judges issue the ruling that the lower court should dismiss the charges.

First of all, they referenced President Trump in the headline refusing to reference General Flynn's name. They said President Trump's former NSA, and as well in the headlines said a third judge accused them of overstepping their powers.

And even in coverage that was more neutral about the ruling itself, still made the call that it was an extraordinary decision by the DOJ to dismiss without as you already pointed out just in one sentence all of those other details that really serve to fill out what the case was actually concluding.

KURTZ: Right. Mara, the ruling was written by a Trump appointee who really scolded the trial judge here, but I can tell you as a former Justice Department reporter, the dropping of charges against somebody who has pleaded guilty is extremely unusual.

MARA LIASSON, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. Yes, it's unusual and there's no doubt that the Trump administration and Bill Barr won a big victory for now but there's still another couple of twists and turns in this case. It's possible that the entire appeals court could hear this. It's possible that Emmett Sullivan, the trial judge who was looking at this situation could decide to go ahead.

This isn't over yet, but I think if you're just scoring innings, you know, the Trump administration won this one.

KURTZ: Yes, I know, it's a big victory and may be close to over but we'll see.

LIASSON: Yes.

KURTZ: Now also this week another Bill Barr story, a current federal prosecutor, Aaron Zelinsky, testified before a House committee about the Roger Stone case where Barr had pushed prosecutors to push for more lenient sentence for the former informal Trump adviser. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AARON ZELINSKY, FORMER ROGER STONE PROSECUTOR: What I heard repeatedly was that this leniency was happening because of Stone's relationship to the president. And I was told that the acting U.S. attorney was e giving a break because he was being afraid of the President of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: Emily, the press really seized on that testimony and kind of painted a picture that this was very negative for Bill Barr and he was just trying to help the president spare his friend a long jail term?

COMPAGNO: Right. It's another example of that amplification of what are actually ancillary points to shape what they consider to be the main story. 
So, also, much was made about a 2000 letter by the Justice Department that essentially said, look, career prosecutors shouldn't testify in front of Congress, it should preserve their independence if not.

And so much was made about just the fact of the testimony in general that how that belies the fact that the Trump administration has had such an effect on the DOJ, and especially that leadership it behest.

I note that barely any coverage was of former Attorney General Mike Mukasey statement that said there seems to be a tendency these days to read into every single one of A.G. Barr's action as having an ulterior motive.

KURTZ: And, Mara, Barr told NPR, your organization in an interview.

LIASSON: Yes, I was just about to --

(CROSSTALK)

KURTZ: This was double hearsay.

LIASSON: Yes.

KURTZ: Double hearsay. Actually, I'll let you do that.

LIASSON: Yes, I was just about to -- yes.

KURTZ: Well, talk about -- talk about that and the fact --

LIASSON: yes.

KURTZ: Yes. Go ahead. Go ahead.

LIASSON: Yes, I was about to recommend that people go and listen or read to Steve Inskeep who's the host of morning edition. He did a very long, thorough, really good interview with Bill Barr where Barr explained why he did what he did, he felt that the sentence was too long compared to other people who had been convicted of the same thing, and he points to the fact that the judge actually in the end did give Stone a shorter sentence.

So, Barr was able to explain himself fully, I think NPR did a really good job and I think people should read that interview.

KURTZ: All right, so 40-month sentence if he's not pardoned and far less than --

LIASSON: Yes.

KURTZ: -- the original seven to nine years --

LIASSON: Right.

KURTZ: -- which I thought was absurdly harsh as a prosecutorial recommendation.

Let me get a break here. Next, John Bolton faces a rocky media road and Jimmy Kimmel admits he's embarrassed by his old black face routines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KURTZ: This is a Fox News alert. Vice President Pence about to make remarks at the celebrate freedom rally at First Baptist Church in Dallas. We'll monitor his event and bring you any news during the day. And he is wearing a mask.

John Bolton has been making the television rounds to promote his book, you know, the one that President Trump has denounced as traitorous and legally tried to block. And the anchor is almost without exception been giving him a hard time and citing other officials contradicting him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN: Several of them, and I got a whole list have come out and says basically you're a liar. So, the question is this, why should Americans believe you as opposed to them?

MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: It just looks like you were saving it to make money off the book.

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR OF THE UNITED STATES: Look, if I were trying to make money off this entire enterprise, I wouldn't have joined the government to begin with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: Emily Compagno, you might think that some anchors and correspondents would embrace the anti-Trump portrayed in the Bolton book but they have been really aggressively questioning him.

COMPAGNO: That's exactly right. From The View to Wolf Blitzer as we just showed, to this network, he was faced hard questions, and unfortunately, his answers didn't really provide the answer of you got a $2 million-dollar advance to this book and you were silent earlier especially during the impeachment hearings, so how can we find anything that you're saying credible at all and he had a weak defense if at all.

KURTZ: Yes. And Mara, the Bolton's problem is that Trump's media supporters are angry with him for writing the book and they see it turning on the president he served. And meanwhile, many liberals in the press are still steamed that he didn't testify during the impeachment hearings.

LIASSON: Right John Bolton is probably one of the few people in Washington who could care less that everyone doesn't like him. But look, his motives are rightly being questioned but the narrative that he has written which will go down in history is not contradicted by other people in the Trump administration or ex-officials.

So, he has corroborated a portrait of Trump's leadership that already existed and I think that's probably what would be the lasting impression.

KURTZ: All right, well, I should mentioned, though, that Mike Pompeo and others have certainly challenged a lot of specifics to what the general --

(CROSSTALK)

LIASSON: Yes, certain things but overall -- yes.

KURTZ: All right.

LIASSON: Yes.

KURTZ: Let me get to Jimmy Kimmel because he's taking a summer off this after video of old black face skits that he participated in and his use of n-word in at least one skid, some of this going back to the 90's, he apologized in a statement saying that looking back many of the sketches are embarrassing, it's frustrating, these thoughtless moments have become a weapon used against him.

He says, however, I won't be bullied into silence by those who feign outrage to advance their oppressive and genuinely racist agendas.

Emily, do you buy Kimmel's argument that his summer hiatus is unrelated to these latest embarrassments?

COMPAGNO: Right. I note that some of the coverage actually let it go without even referencing at all whether that scene is authentic. They just say he's taking the summer off and that's it.

I wanted to point out that he is slated to host the Emmy's in September and I will -- we will all see whether this is going to be another Kevin Hart situation who refuse to apologize for past homophobic tweets and so he stepped down for hosting the Oscars and I think it remains to be seen whether the mob rule is going to let his statements slide here.

KURTZ: Right. Look, some of these old skits, Mara, are cringe-inducing stuff. It's serious business when it's like the governor of Virginia but should the press hold the comedian to this same standard for old material?

LIASSON: Yes. you know what, people have taken breaks from their anchor slots or their hosting duties and come back on the air and continued. There are a lot of different ways to handle this. I think the press is raising some questions, but in the end, I think Jimmy Kimmel and his employers will decide, you know, how long he should stay off the air and what he should say about this when he gets back.

KURTZ: Right. Megyn Kelly who was let go from NBC for just talking about black face tweeted that Andy Lack and the NBC chairman said there's no place on our air for discussion of black face because NBC was already shot full of shows and major stars actually wearing black face. Because these others including Saturday Night Live.

Good discussion, Mara Liasson and Emily Compagno. Have a great Sunday.

COMPAGNO: Thank you.

LIASSON: Thank you.

KURTZ: Still to come, Facebook does a 180 on banning some post by the president or other political leaders. How Mark Zuckerberg is caving to the pressure.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KURTZ: Mark Zuckerberg is beating a quick retreat after getting hammered for insisting Facebook shouldn't police political speech. He now says the social network will remove posts from President Trump or other political leaders that incite violence or attempt to suppress voting and ban ads that paint certain groups as dangerous.

When Twitter, for instance, put a warning label on Trump's tweet that when the looting starts, the shooting starts, Facebook did nothing. Zuckerberg says he doesn't want to be an arbiter of truth but I believe Facebook should take responsibility for its content like the giant media company that it is. You're a player, Mark, and this is overdue.

What on earth was the Tennessean thinking? The Gannett newspaper fired and advertising manager and apologized after running a full- page ad from a biblical prophecy group with pictures of President Trump and Pope Francis claiming that Islam would set off a bomb in Nashville. What? Nobody thought to question that? The Tennessean said, we are sincerely sorry that this mistake took place. We are extremely apologetic to the community that the advertisement was able to get through. Unbelievable.

Well, that's it for this edition of "Media Buzz." I'm Howard Kurtz. We hope you'll also like our Facebook page. We post my daily columns there. And we can continue the conversation on Twitter at Howard Kurtz. And check out my podcast "Media Buzz Meter." You can subscribe at Apple iTunes or now on your Amazon device. Just ask for it. We are back here next Sunday. You know the time, 11 Eastern. Lots to talk about these days. See you then with the latest Buzz.

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